A Cyber Attack Could Be Deadly as Nuclear Weapons

Today people tensions about the nuclear threat of foreign rivalry country. Big countries like the US, China, Russia and others are engaging in the development of their nuclear power. Countries like the US, China and Russia show their power at the field to create threats on others. In another side countries like North Korea launched multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea and Sukhoi jets fired air-to-surface missiles. But we are ignoring the power of Cyber Attack. A Cyber Attack could be deadly as Nuclear Weapons, say, scientists.

Cyber attacks could be deadly as nuclear weapons

People are not concerned about the death toll because of Cyberattacks. A Nuclear Attack can burn people immediately within 100 feet at the centre of the blast, damage the area up to 4 km and 90% of people in that radius can die. But the death toll due to a Cyberattack is slower. In this case, people die due to lack of food, water, electricity and many other essential aspects of our life. Cybersecurity can kill people in hot and cold.

Government cybersecurity also gets signs of malicious software code pushing to security systems by Cyber attackers. In the previous years, Cyber Attacks on military security systems teaches the governments that Nuclear Attacks is vulnerable in front of the power of Cyber Attacks. This threat is serious and less visible to the public. These are a serious threat to us:

The cyber threat to Water Plants:

People might not know that Cyber Attacks can hack the security of water treatment plant's system of the country and change the combinations of chemicals, which is used to purify the water, injected in our drinking water. When public drink that poisonous water they could die or badly infected. In early 2016, hackers took control of US water treatment plants for drinking water and change the chemical mixture.

Cyberattack on Power grid:

In 2016 and 2017, hackers shut down huge sections of the power grid in Ukraine. But it was so mild that no machine was destroyed during it. But a sudden power loss in a power grid can destroy major machines like turbine and generators in generating side. Cyber attacks can change, delete and also all the data from any power plant security systems. In 2018, the unknown cyberattacker gained access throughout the UK's electricity systems. In 2019, a similar attack came on the US grid.

Cyberattack on Petrochemical plant:

Hackers can take control of Petrochemical plants of countries. They can release chemicals to the environment that is harmful to humans as well as for other living organisms. Releasing chemicals to the earth's water bodies can kill the livings of water. In August 2017, a Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant was attacked by hackers. They try to blow up equipment by taking control of the same types of electronics used in the industry. Just before few months, hackers shut down the monitoring systems of oil and gas pipelines across the US.

Cyberattack on Nuclear Weapons:

FBI has warned us that hackers try to targeting nuclear facilities in our countries. A successful breakdown of the security of nuclear weapons can modify or even delete the data by which they can trigger the weapon in any country they want. After that the victim country can throw their nuclear missile to that country, that's how both countries can be destroyed by Cyber Security. So, this is how the scientists and security conclude that Cyber Attacks is more powerful than Nuclear Weapons.

Nuclear stations:

A cyber attack on Nuclear Stations can cause a similar event like Chernobyl event. Hacker can change the chemical combination of a nuclear reactor in a nuclear power plant. That can cause huge damage, bring dangerous harm to the millions of people and make the place uninhabitable for years.

Cyberattack on Airline:

The airline is a gold mine for hackers. Because Airline collects millions of customer's data like credit data details and much personal information. In previous year Pacific Airways revealed a hacker got access of 9.4 million customer's information. Airline authority faces a lack of qualified cybersecurity engineer to protect information from the threat. Also in Previous year, a hacker deletes all information of customers of a flight. Some of the innocent visitors got arrested because of the invalid data. A cyber attack can eliminate all connections between the plane and the ground airline authority. If they don't communicate with each side serious damage can happen.

Mutually assured destruction

The idea of Mutual assured destruction suggests that no country should launch a nuclear weapon at another nuclear-armed nation.

Further, Cyberwarfare can start with small targets like personal phone, laptops and others. Larger attacks might target businesses like banks, hotels, government agency and nuclear systems.

Defending against Cyberattacks

There is no ways to defend Nuclear attacks but some ways we can add to our personal and business life to less disaster from Hackers.

At first the governments, businesses and regular public need to secure their data and systems up to the marks to prevent malware codes to their systems.

Critical systems like transportation and chemical industries should enhance their security to prevent any hazardous events.

Now we see many students are getting interested in cybersecurity and hacking. The security department of every industry should be well prepared for a cyber attack. The systems like it should employ dedicated and professional Cyber Security engineer to handle the work. At present, more cybersecurity jobs vacancy is released by the US. People with not properly qualification on cybersecurity is creating a headache to Governments. Nowadays every industries and government trying their best to protect the data from cyber-attacks, because sometimes personal information is more valuable then a thousand lives.

So, In my opinion, A Cyber Attack could be deadlier than Nuclear Weapons. Comment below your opinion